1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat stowing structure, and more particularly to a stowing structure in which a seat can be rotated to be stowed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, constructions have been getting common on vehicles of station wagon and van types in which a third-row seat is provided in a space behind a second-row seat in the passenger compartment.
However, the third-row seat so provided occupies a luggage space. Thus there is caused a problem that when a piece of large-sized luggage or a number of pieces of luggage are attempted to be loaded in the vehicle in addition to passengers, the luggage cannot be loaded as desired.
To cope with this problem, a seat stowing structure is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-2001-63421 in which a recessed stowage portion is provided in the surface of a floor of a vehicle at a position behind a third-row seat so that the third-row seat can be folded and rotated backward to thereby be stowed in the recessed stowage portion.
In the structure disclosed in the aforementioned publication, the depth of the recessed stowage portion is increased by raising the level of a floor surface in front of the recessed stowage portion.
However, to increase the depth of the recessed stowage portion in this way, a floor panel constituting the floor surface must be formed by extensive deep drawing. Therefore, such a structure has problems in that when the floor panel is press-molded, cracks are liable to occur therein, and that the yield thereof becomes low.
The invention has been made to solve the above problems. According to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a vehicle seat stowing structure comprising: a seat disposed on a floor and including a seat cushion; a rotational shaft; a recess formed in the floor; and a casing extending in a width wise direction of a vehicle, wherein the seat is rotated around the rotational shaft towards the rear of a vehicle so that a bottom surface of the seat cushion faces the inside of a passenger compartment to thereby be stowed in the recess, the floor is formed so that at least a part thereof extending between a portion provided forwardly of a place, at which the seat is disposed, and a front edge of the recess is flat; and the casing is disposed at a place, which is located forwardly of the recess and which faces the bottom surface of the seat cushion, on a surface of the floor.
Therefore, even when the depth of the recess formed in the floor is not large, sufficient depth for stowing the seat is ensured by cooperation between the recess and the casing provided forwardly of the recess. Thus, the entire seat can be rotation-received in the recess. Consequently, cracks are prevented from occurring when the floor panel is press-molded. Hence, the press-formability of the floor panel is enhanced.
Further, because the floor is formed so that at least a part thereof extending between the portion provided forwardly of the place, at which the seats are disposed, and the front edge of the recess is flat, the necessity for extensive bending-formation of the floor panel is eliminated. Thus, the press-formability of the floor panel is enhanced.